In other news, I'm finally able to admit that I'm just not up to doing the music videos I had planned for the Frontiers single releases. Big things were planned and I had a lot of great people onboard to help me out but my heart just isn't in it right now. They will hopefully happen at some point but I'm going to be releasing the singles planned from Frontiers without music videos later this year.

Regarding the dark ambient album, this has been on hold for a while as it didn't quite sit well with me but it's almost there.

That's about it, I've been doing some music for podcasts and youtube channels which you'll probably hear at some point, thanks for reading and keep your ears open for some Synoiz releases soon!

Geez why are these things always so difficult to sit down and write? Thanks for all the feedback on the latest album, Frontiers has done really well for itself. I am planning to release more singles from it as well as doing a short run of gigs, it's just a lot to plan right now and frankly I'm really wanting to write more new material while I'm in the zone as it were.

So the plan for me right now is that I'm working on a new album of tracks unrelated to Frontiers but that should be released in time for my near regular Halloween slot, I'm working on getting some gigs lined up and there will be more singles/b-sides/videos from Frontiers eventually.

It's become a big dilemma for me that I get stuck in a particular "release" and things just pile up behind it, I think the way I'm going now (after the Ambients era lasting so long) is that I'm going to release things when they're ready regardless of if I'm already promoting something else, so while I may release a new album later this year, I'll still go back to Frontiers and release new stuff for that afterward rather than a linear release system. So you never know, in 7 years time I might release another single from Ambients haha.

So... exciting times!

Hope you're all well and still enjoying the latest material, a common thing I seem to be hearing is people getting Brave New Worlds stuck in their heads, so here it is again, hohoho.

Hello there!It's been bloody ages since I last updated my blog, it's been a crazy year and I've been taking things in my stride while I've finished the new album Frontiers. It's out on Monday at iTunes, Amazon, to stream on Spotify and to buy direct from my own webstore right here (I think it's cheapest on iTunes but you get a digital booklet if you buy from here).

In August and September I ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a physical CD release of the album and wonderfully it exceeded its funding target and we were able to get CDs made, they'll be available from the webstore from Monday and I'm in talks with getting them stocked locally in some Newcastle / Sunderland stores in case you're nearby and don't like ordering off the interwebs.

I've had some really good feedback from the fans who got the album early through the campaign, I was a bit scared that Frontiers isn't quite as dramatic as Ambients was but it's a different beast essentially. I've got a few reviews of the album and interviews coming out over the next month so keep an eye out for them (no doubt I'll be spamming my Twitter and Facebook with them when I've got a copy myself!)

Oh yeah, I best put this up while I remember, to test out some of the new tracks including the vocal songs from Frontiers, I did a secret gig in Sunderland back in May. Thankfully the new stuff went down very well, here's a setlist:

Frontiers Preview Gig Setlist:

Such Blissful Inactivity (Intro)

Make Up Your Mind

The Captain (Segue)

Long Forgotten Centuries

Brave New Worlds

The Cataclysm (Segue)

U.N.Stable

Becoming More

The Asterism

Getting Safer

Thanks to everyone who made it, it was a lot of fun even if we had crazy sound problems for the first few minutes! I've been offered a gig or two for the new album lately but what will probably be happening is that I'll get a band together (I kinda need more keyboardists to do half the stuff!) in the new year and then start doing some gigs around the North East and maybe further afield.

Hope you're all doing well,

Frontiers is out on Monday 6th October 2014, please grab a copy and tell me what you think!

News at last! At the moment I'm working on a soundtrack for the short horror film "Blaze of Gory" for Mitsuko Studios and pretending I know how to use a Korg MS-20 synthesiser I've just bought from Red Dog Music in Edinburgh.

The new album is almost done, vocals need tweaking and I've dropped another track that I just couldn't get happy with, some voice over sections have been added and hopefully at the end of the month I will be going back up to Edinburgh to master the album with Ghostsmut (who also mastered the first album Ambients).

At the weekend I wrote up ideas for the music videos for the album (no singles per say but we are hopefully having videos for some stand out tracks), I've discussed two of these videos with Ian Lawlor at 12 Foot Beast Productions (who has done all my other videos as he's mint) and I'm discussing two digitally rendered CG videos with Ryan McKindle of Pathogen Pictures. All early days still but hopefully these videos will come out really good!

Hope you're all well, eat a biscuit. Unless you're allergic, then just have an apple or something.

I've been a bit more into Twitter as of late so feel free to message @Synoiz on there.

Finally some music news, I've been really busy lately with so many things that aren't Synoiz related it's unreal. A week or two ago I scored a short horror filmed called "Summer's Night" which is apparently going to be released as part of a horror compilation at some point. I'd like to say I enjoyed making it but at the time I was really ill, the film edit had overrun and when I got it to start on there was only a weekend before the submission deadline and no time to get better, so it was a weekend full of Lemsip, hot chocolate and playing long cello patches on the keyboard with a wild disregard for tempo. I liked that though, the more soundtracks I work on, the better I get with them. The first one I did I treated like a collection of songs, finding a tempo and key for each scene (compromising when I had to) and making it very mechanical, now I've loosened up a bit and seen that when most people edit films they're not counting the beats in their head between one shot and the next, they're working the flow around many different factors and so a fixed time signature and tempo can hinder rather than help in some cases.

Anyway that's enough on that, the new Synoiz album is in that horrible unending 99% complete stage that a lot of other artists have told me they get also. The songs are written, I'm playing about with some voice acting parts and the production is really close to being good but it's just been stuck for the last few months where I tweak little bits and fiddle about with patches and sounds rather than going "sod it, this is done". I'm aiming for a February release date and while I don't want any singles from the album there might be an EP with instrumentals of the vocal tracks and some outtakes. There will be music videos too but while myself and 12 Ft Beast Productions are bandying around ideas for them I don't want to think of all that stuff until I'm done with my music.

I do hope you'll like the album, it's not as varied as Ambients I don't think but really nice to just slap on your headphones while you're out and about.